A Gala dinner called “Vietnamese days in Paris” was held in the Vietnamese Embassy in France on October 1 with the participation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, his wife and nearly 500 delegates from Vietnam and France.
Opening the gala dinner was a video clip introducing the Vietnamese people and their land as well as Vietnam-France relations over the past years. The Prime Minister then delivered a speech, highlighting Vietnam’s important achievements in the fields of economics, healthcare, education, and poverty reduction.
“Vietnam has achieved high economic growth while maintaining political stability over the past 20 years. It has also intergrated further into the global community and is now a member of the World Trade Organisation”, said Mr Dung.
He noted that Vietnam has so far established diplomatic, economic and trade ties with almost all countries and territories in the world. It has been a reliable partner to all the nations in the world in its quest for peace, cooperation and development, in the sprit of equality and mutual benefit. In addition, Asian countries have nominated Vietnam as a candidate to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2008-2009 tenure.
The PM also emphasised that in spite of the geographical distance, Vietnam-France relations have a historical and cultural depth on the basis of their time-honoured friendship and long-term, reliable and comprehensive cooperation. He expressed his delight at the fine development of bilateral relations in all fields and said that his visit aims to strengthen and deepen the friendship and cooperation between the two nations and peoples.
He also expressed his belief that and bilateral ties will continue to develop comprehensively in all fields in the near future, bringing practical benefits to both sides in the 21st century.
In his speech, French Minister of Economy and Finance Ms Christine Lagarde lauded Vietnam’s achievements over the past few years with its open-door policy and emphasised that both countries should do their best to boost cooperation, especially in export, finance and investment. He expressed his joy to see that Vietnam had achieved a consecutive economic growth rate of over 8 percent per year with exports increasing by over 22 percent in value. He added that France always wants to stand side by side with Vietnam in future development programmes.
